Possibility

December 30

It caught my attention, randomly,
early one morning. Recently.

Peacefully.

I wander the city each morning. I look for
alterations to my landscape. Bare witness.

No point in walking if you don’t see. Changes;
graffiti to some, a symbol to others. Proof.

Peace.

It meant something to someone that they would
take the time to scratch out a symbol on a wall.

It meant something, on a bigger scale,
decades ago. Pacifism. Or protest.

Purpose.

Peace is more than a state of mind,
or symbol from another generation.

Realistically speaking, peace should be simple,
not a complicated shadow of pitfalls and politics.

Prayer.

Peace should stop you and grab hold of the senses.
A thought. An idea. An ideology. Silent action.

Possibility.

Decades later it is still only a thought. A dream.
It wakes me. It means something to me. Now.

Promise.

I’d like to think it means something to you.
Dare we find substance in a shared dream?

                             “They won’t give peace a chance
                             That was just a dream some of us had”
                                                                         -Joni Mitchell
                                                                              California

Hello Winter

The weight of winter hardly upon us, 
only now is our reality apparent.
The season must be seen to be felt.

Without snow there are only 
harsh winds and inconvenient truths.
Precipitation fuels our anticipation.

On the cusp of Solstice, Christmas 
barely a week away, winter now visible.
We live the season as much as we wear it.

Months from now we will wish it all 
away, yet today our feelings are as fresh 
as the fallen snow. Hello winter.

12/20/2024                                j.g.l.

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December 16

Mondays are just young Fridays

The learning never stops; and so, it shouldn’t.

Often, more through trial than error, I have taken on new tasks throughout my life and the experience (for the most part) leaves me in a better place; no matter how difficult it seems at first.

I am undertaking a redesign of this website. Not the type to go into things blindly, I’ve taken on some help to see myself through the process. I knew, from the outset, that I would require some assistance just as I did when I opened up Mythos & Marginalia almost a decade ago.

So much has changed in the years since. I wanted to take this opportunity to not only update the look of the website, but also my skills.

I am learning.

While I know (or think I know) what I want, turning my ideas into a tangible reality is not easy. I understand the fundamentals of page design from my years in the newspaper industry but editing and layout has come a long way from the days of pencils and pica sticks. Technically it is easier now (or should be), but it is the technology that I have issues with. My knowledge of coding was never what it should be, so I am trying to learn more.

The learning never stops.

The WordPress ‘classic editor’ — the platform I have worked on until recently — is, principally, more straightforward with its options. Selecting text size was a drop-down menu, and aligning the type was just a choice of clicks. Working in this format had become routine.

The newer (and, apparently, more advanced) ‘block editor’ mostly seems to skip those familiar steps. I, now, should be able to work more visibly to adjust the text to what I am trying to achieve. That’s a big “should be”. I am, right now, daunted by what should be simple keystrokes and sizing on a very intuitive template.

Making mistakes is easy; correcting them often proves difficult. Understanding the errors of my ways takes understanding and knowledge. I am learning. Slowly.

I guess I had become too used to doing things in a certain way, in a specific order, always able to visualize the results. Now, in this new format, all I seem to be doing is confusing myself.

I am not working in my habitual ways. But I am still learning. That’s a good thing.

You don’t learn from routine, yet you should routinely be learning.

12/16/2024 j.g.l.

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December 19

speak up

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December 17

12/17/2024

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December 15

in my journal

Incomplete thoughts, generally, complete me. Always, in my time.

Casually or constructively, I write what I think (or what I want to think) until it all falls together.

The unfinished thoughts – those bruised, blemished declarations, replete with erroneous expectations or rough edges – often lay latent in my journal. For a time.

Often intrusively confusing and so full of questions, the mandate of the message lacks even muffled clarity.

Those words will keep for another day.

12/15/2024 j.g.l.

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